Development and values
Ershad Khandker
Aserious problem in our society happens to be a lack of honesty, and if courage is the DNA for honesty, I think there is also a massive dearth of courage in this country. I hear a chorus of mental murmur, since admission to any sort of lack need courage and you need even more courage to admit that there is a lack of courage itself. No one would admit to cowardice, since manhood and womanhood depends on the vain assumption that one must always maintain a vanity about oneself, a veneer of "I am your equal." This veneer of vanity, that we must always pretend that we are equal to others, would be the haze behind which one of the finest emotion or quality that humans can posses would get hidden and then ultimately vanish. What is that emotion? The ability to admit to one's own fault. You need courage and then honesty to admit that you may have made a mistake. We forget that admitting fault would show courage and give you absolution. Absolution would help you to star afresh, wipe the slate clean and stand before your peers and ask for another chance. You will be born again.If we all were equal, then who would be the teacher amongst us? How can a leader be equal to a follower, if he or she does not have the ability to convince the follower of the need to follow him because of promise of attaining a certain goal that only he or she can deliver? A natural born leader, is elected or selected naturally by a vote of the followers, when the followers collectively say: "Leader, please show us the path, organise the journey, walk ahead of us because you know the way!" This clearly shows that when the leader knows the way, he knows something more then the follower and hence he or she is not the equal to the follower. You admit to your mistakes and they might even recognise the incredible honesty of that admission, make you the leader, since the ability of admitting a mistake and starting the journey with clean slate is leadership quality, something that is absent in most people. Admit to your mistakes, show courage and honesty, and you shall definitely be leadership material. The ability to understand oneself, admit to one's mistakes, recognise the truth, take penitence and seek absolution. Human civilisation has shown that a community that fosters such a sequence of national characteristics would be able to march forward and attain glory by education, eradication of poverty and attain national development. Do we see the existence of such values in our society, in Bangladesh? No, do not think of this question as rhetorical, and related to politics. I am asking you to look unto yourself, and honestly try to remember the last time you admitted your fault (however small) to your friend, or colleague or relative, and above all, to your father or to your children, with whom you have a certain estrangement, a certain distance. You shall not feel happy and see success if this distance keeps lingering. What way do you have open to yourself? You must say sorry and compromise. You shall gain absolution, feel successful, and at the end asking for forgiveness from such a loved one as your father or your children, does it belittle you in any way? Is it not that your interests are the same as your loved ones? We should admit to our mistakes, seek forgiveness, should not feel a sense of superiority or a vain sense of equality, understand the value of honesty. Politics comes in this sequence. Our leaders could do well to understand the need to have courage and honesty. Once you admit to your failings you shall be ready to act and move forward and take the followers and your countrymen with you to happiness of national development. We shall have deliverance from depravity and degradation now in existence in our country. Once we know our innerselevs and wear our values in our day-to-day life, there shall be absolution from poverty, chaos, and lawlessness. Because, your heart will be pure, your head will be clear and your hands would then want to work hard. This is the secret that is hindering our development, our policies are sound, we just don't have the mind to execute those policies and fulfill our destiny to an inevitable rise to the top. Ershad Khandker is a freelance writer.
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